Wednesday, December 25, 2013

merry christmas everyone! thought i would share some fabulous holiday scarecrows that my 1st graders made. i planned this lesson for november, but by the time we actually got to it, thanksgiving had passed. such is life in the art room. since it was already up on my project board, we rolled with it anyways...tweaking it holiday style. much thanks to one of my favorite art ed blogs, smart class, for this idea!

wishing you all a very merry christmas, and i'll be back next year with some more great art!

Friday, December 6, 2013

our first snow day of the season hit today, which has given me a chance to update my blog. whew! i don't know about you guys, but to me it seems like time is flying.

we've got lots of cool projects in progress in the art room. photos coming soon! i installed our 2nd show at the arlington isd professional development center a few weeks ago. this time, the show features artists from 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grades.

i took down the previous show of 4th, 5th, and 6th and moved it to our library.

with the exception of this gorgeous oil pastel painting by deijah in 6th grade. it was chosen for a show in one of our arlington hospitals. woot and congrats deijah!

our librarian has graciously given me a wall to display art on, so i hope to add more soon.

i hope you all had a wonderful and peaceful thanksgiving. i know we did.

Saturday, November 9, 2013

one and two...baby boy turned six years old. and on top of that, he was chosen as student of the week for his school. so proud!

three...i won this fabulous book on zentagles from my fellow blogger deb at learning just to breathe. i took it to my classroom because it is a great how to book for zentangles. my fifth and sixth graders will love it!

four...i finally finished my hands installation in our school. it's hanging over the cafeteria and looks really great. like most art, it looks much better in person!

five...installed some 4th, 5th and 6th art at our professional development center. i'm really proud of these guys and will write another post on this later!

six...i'm just in love with the oil pastel cat faces my 3rd graders did. no offense to laurel burch, but i think these are better than hers!

hope you all are having a great fall.

this week, here's to six amazing years, to generosity, and to progress!

Thursday, October 10, 2013

my first 6 weeks back in a public school classroom are under my belt now. first couple of projects are finished...

6th Grade Hands

6th Grade oil pastel trees

grades are in and artworks installations are finally in progress...

that hand project, by the way, holy cow! i did it with all 6 of my grade levels. 800 or so students. yes...crazy, i know. but seriously, just wait until you see the final installation pictures. coming soon!

also...super exciting, fabulous news...one of my prayer flags was published in the october/november issue of quilting arts magazine. you can read more about my prayer flag project here and here. very cool!

p.s. that amazing oil pastel tree painting is just one of many, many cool ones! so, i will be back soon with some more art awesomeness.

Sunday, September 8, 2013

good morning class. my name is mrs. hernandez, and i am the new art teacher here at ellis elementary.

yes, that is right. in case you haven't heard yet, i have decided to take the art instruction part of jaeartworks back into the public school classroom. our youngest has started kinder, and my husband and i felt like it would be better if my work schedule lined up more with their school schedules. so here we go!

i've been in the school for 2 weeks now, and i'm super excited because i have some really talented kids! so i hope you all will stay with me for some new adventures in art.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

sorry i've been sort of quiet these past few weeks of summer. there are some big changes brewing over here. i'll be announcing those soon, but in the meantime, i thought i'd share some of the books i've been reading lately.

we've made a huge change in how we eat over here. i've read a ton of books and articles and blog posts. right now i am reading this one. these guys do a great job of explaining what the modern american diet (they call it MAD) is doing to our brains and thus our health. it is both fascinating and horrifying at the same time. i definetly consider this a must-read!

as an art teacher, i am always interested in ways to teach color theory. i liked this book here a lot. it had some really interesting facts in it too that i actually did not know!

and, for some reason, i have recently felt inclined to learn more about folk artsists. i started with this one. when galleries started showing clementine's art, she wasn't even allowed to attend because she was african american. unbelievable!

and, oh yes, this just arrived in the mail. always a must read...hehe

next on my list? well, this just arrived from amazon today. i learned about it from this post here by katie at adventures of an art teacher. as a private art teacher, i do a lot of choice based teaching. but i am very interested in learning about how this could be applied in a regular art classroom. can't wait to read it!

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

i know it's been a while since i've talked about photo apps. i still use them all the time, and every day i am astounded at how these apps have absolutely changed the face of every day photography. my newest photo app crush is called a beautiful mess, by the girls who write the mega popular blog of the same name. you guys, this app makes it super easy (and fun!) to add writing and doodles to your photos. up until now, i have used photoshop and my bamboo tablet to do this. and, don't get me wrong, i still love both of those things. but this app has the ability to do much of the same things, only faster and easier. and, as a blogger who is also a full time mom, artist and art teacher, those are two of my favorite words! check out what's been going on over here...

my summer art classes are entering the last week. and it has been 7 weeks of artistic fun! sometimes more than the paper gets painted- lol

we have done all kinds of art...drawing, painting, collage, even clay. i love love love these clay pendants my youngest art class made!

since spring, my husband and i have been working on renovating our backyard. one thing we created was a fire pit area. for years i have been saving the original wood sign my grandmother used for her art business. now i have a place to hang it. here's a sneak peek...

every year, my boys paint a bird house, and my husband adds it to our tree. we just added our two latest. how happy does this tree make you? i know, right!

after 11 years, i finally broke down and bought a new pair of running shoes. think they are bright enough? hehe #goboldorgohome

and, i will always be a die hard pilates girl, but lately i've been riding bikes a lot with my family. i've kind of been surprised at just how much i love it!

so, this week, here's to a beautiful mess and things that make what you do easier!

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

for the past couple of weeks, my art classes have been working on mixed media collages. i got the inspiration for the flower one from an article in the latest issue of cloth paper scissors magazine called botanical collage. then i created a robot one for any students that didn't want to do flowers.

my demos...

demos

i won't lie...this was an ambitious project that included painting, stamping, drawing, cutting and pasting, and even the adding of 3 dimensional elements. whew! and most students declared they were finished somewhere around the half way point (um no!) but we all pushed through, and no one can deny the results are fabulous! check. these. out...

why julia?

i use the name julia for all my art. it all started back in college as a tribute to my great- grandfather, who left me the money to pay for my art degree. he called me julia.

Welcome to jaeartworks!

i truly hope you find yourself inspired, but please remember that all images and artworks are protected by copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, displayed or published without permission of julie hernandez!